by Metsy Hingle
Better things like drowning in a bottle of whiskey or slithering into the nearest casino, she thought, even more repulsed by the man now than she’d been when he’d first sought her out six months ago. “Then let’s not waste any more of each other’s time, Doctor. Did you bring the document?”
“Of course I brought it. But first I want to see the money.”
She retrieved the black tote bag that she’d filled with cash. Opening it, she angled it so that the light from the streetlamp fell on its contents. And there was no mistaking the lust in the man’s bloodshot brown eyes as he gazed at it. Like a drug addict about to get his next fix, she thought. But when he reached for the bag, she snapped it closed. “Not so fast, Doctor. First, I want the birth certificate.”
He fumbled inside his coat pocket, drew out an envelope and shoved it at her.
While he pounced on the bag and began pawing through the stacks of bills, she was grateful to be wearing gloves as she opened the envelope and withdrew the faded sheet of paper. Rage whipped through her as she stared at the birth certificate. Sarah Tompkins. Or at least that had been her name before those stupid nuns had changed it to Kelly Santos because the girl had been too young and stupid to remember who she was.
She skipped past the name of the mother and focused her attention on the father’s name. Seeing her own father’s name there was like a slap in the face, filling her with a black hatred. Reaching deep down inside herself, she channeled her anger just as she had done so often as a child until she was able to focus again. She would not allow Kelly to ruin her perfect life. She would destroy her, just as she should have been destroyed the first time. But first, first she needed to take care of business. “You’re sure this is the only copy?”
“What? Yeah, it’s the only one,” he muttered, distracted by all the cash.
She tucked the envelope inside her purse and reached for the gun. “Then I guess this is goodbye, Doctor,” she said politely, and pulled the trigger.
Kelly heard the doctor’s cry of surprise. Then suddenly she felt the sharp pain in his chest, the warm, sticky feel of blood on his fingers, smelled the sickening scent of his blood. Panic raced through him, through her, as he felt the life flowing from him. Suddenly Kelly’s legs started to buckle beneath her, then she felt arms going around her and heard the sound of Jack’s voice.
“Kelly! Kelly, come out of it, baby!”
“Is she all right?” she heard Leon ask.
Her head still spinning and her heart racing, Kelly blinked and suddenly she was in Jack’s arms. His face was pale, his blue eyes filled with worry as he stared at her.
“I’m going to call a doctor,” Leon said.
“No,” Kelly cried out. “No doctor.”
“Hang on,” Jack told his partner. “Are you all right?” he asked her, his voice anxious.
“Yes. I think so.” She clutched at his shirt. “Jack, he was blackmailing her.”
“Yeah, I figured that out from what you were saying. Something to do with a birth certificate.”
“Yes,” she said, her head still reeling, her body still trembling from the aftermath of the murder. “She thinks she has the only one, but she doesn’t. He made a copy of the birth certificate.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she repeated with a shake of her head.
“Do you know who the woman is?” Leon asked.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t get a fix on her, or see her face or feel who she was. There was just all this darkness in her, darkness and rage when she saw the name on the birth certificate.”
“Whose name was on the birth certificate?” Leon asked.
She looked over at Jack’s partner. “Sarah. Sarah Tompkins.”
Leon frowned. He glanced over at Jack. “Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“Tell me what?” Kelly asked.
“Gilbert’s office nurse, the woman we’re trying to find, her name is Tompkins. Eve Tompkins.”
“Could be Eve Tompkins is this Sarah’s mother,” Leon suggested. “Maybe Sarah Tompkins is our shooter.”
“Sarah Tompkins didn’t kill him,” Kelly informed them.
Leon narrowed his eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because I’m Sarah Tompkins. Or at least that’s who I was before I was left at St. Ann’s.”
“Holy shit,” Leon exclaimed.
Jack held her by the shoulders, watched her closely. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes. And there’s something else you should know.”
“What?” Jack asked.
“The woman who killed Gilbert is the same woman who killed Sister Grace. And she intends to kill me.”
“Just set them down over here,” Meredith instructed the deliverymen who carted in the shipments of evening clothes that she’d ordered for the shop. When her cell phone rang, she moved behind the counter to retrieve it from her purse. “Be careful you don’t take out any of my glass shelves,” she warned the burly fellows who were edging dangerously close to her display case of baubles.
“Relax, lady. We ain’t gonna mess up your stuff,” the beefier of the duo told her.
If he valued his life he had better not, she thought, because she had a small fortune tied up in the expensive crystal-and-jewel trinkets. Eyeing the two men carefully, she snatched the still-ringing phone from her bag. “What?”
“Meredith?”
“Hang on a second, Jack.” When the delivery team actually managed to unload the last of the boxes without doing anything more than causing a vase to wobble, she breathed a sigh of relief. After signing the ticket and seeing them out the door, she turned her attention to her brother. “Sorry about that. My delivery of evening wear for the shop finally arrived.”
“That’s good, then. I guess,” he said, not sounding the least bit impressed.
“Yes, it is a very good thing,” she told him. “The store opening is less than two weeks away.” And she’d been worried sick that the gowns wouldn’t arrive on time. Now that they had, she was just itching to rip into those boxes and check out her purchases.
“Meredith, you still there?”
“Sorry,” she said, and turned away from the boxes. “So what’s up, big brother?”
“I need a favor.”
“If that favor includes allowing you to bail out on me for the preview party this weekend, forget it. I expect you and Peter both to come and spend obscene amounts of money. And the fact that you don’t have a current lady friend is not an acceptable excuse. You can buy something for your sister for Christmas.”
“You own the shop, Meredith,” he pointed out dryly.
“Exactly. So you can be sure that whatever you buy me, I’ll love it.” Which made perfect sense to her.
“I’ll keep that in mind. But I wasn’t calling to bail out on your party. I need you to do me a favor.”
He sounded so serious, Meredith thought. “All right. What’s the favor?”
“I need you to stay with Kelly today and let her think it’s your idea.”
“Kelly Santos?”
“Yeah. I’m worried about her and don’t want her to be alone. But Leon and I have to go to the Gulf Coast. So I’d like you to stay with her until I get back this evening.”
Her brother and Kelly?
Meredith sank down in one of the cushy lounging chairs she’d had grouped around a glass table, hardly noticing the crystal vase of flowers she’d taken such pains in arranging.
“Meredith, did you hear me?” Jack asked, his voice sharp.
“Yes. Yes, I heard you.” She thought back to her mother’s cocktail party, and vaguely remembered Jack talking to Kelly. But she’d also seen him with Alicia. Her brother and Kelly? The notion boggled her mind. “Jack, are you and Kelly—”
“Yes. You have a problem with that?”
Testy, she thought. “No. No problem. As a matter of fact, I’d rather see you with just about anyone instead of Alicia Van Owen.
But my brain’s just having a little trouble computing the idea of you and quiet, spooky-eyed Kelly Santos.”
“Then I suggest you get used to it,” he snapped, and followed with a deep sigh. “Listen, Kelly had a rough time this morning down at the precinct. And I’d feel a lot better if I knew she wasn’t alone at that hotel. She could really use a friend.”
“I’ll give her a call,” Meredith told him.
“No. Don’t call. She’ll tell you not to come. Just go over there.”
“And assuming she let’s me through the door, just what am I supposed to do once I’m there?” Kelly had turned her down flat when she’d followed up with a phone call wanting to discuss her doing the ad for Indulgences.
“I don’t know. Do whatever it is women do when they get together. Gossip. Talk about men.”
“We’re talking Kelly Santos here, big brother. She’s not exactly the gossip/let’s-trash-men type,” she reminded him.
“I have faith in you to come up with something.”
The “something” she’d come up with was to get Kelly to help her at the shop. Two hours later, she had the woman, who had apparently snagged her brother Jack’s attention, in a sea of tissue paper as she unearthed evening dresses, flirty shoes and trinkets from the shipment she’d received earlier.
“This box has more dresses,” Kelly announced as she pulled out a strapless emerald-satin evening gown and a black-beaded cocktail suit. “Where do you want these?”
Meredith looked up from where she’d been pairing the silver Jimmy Choo heels with a vintage de la Renta dress on a display mannequin. “Oh, those are the Ralph Laurens. Very classic, don’t you think?”
“They’re pretty,” she offered.
Meredith laughed. “Thank goodness you’re not a customer, Kelly. If the rest of the women in this city were as ecstatic as you about the things in the shop, I’d be out of business before I ever began.”
Kelly flushed. “I see this kind of stuff all the time, Meredith. It’s just not that big a deal to me anymore.”
“You’ve been working in New York too long. It’s made you jaded if you can’t salivate over a beautiful dress anymore,” she informed her. “You can put them over there in that armoire,” she said, pointing to one of the pieces she’d brought in because she hadn’t wanted to be just another store filled with racks of the same dresses. Every item in her shop was a one of a kind. While she would order different sizes of the same design to fulfill a customer’s request, she’d purposely chosen different styles in different sizes, hoping to appeal to the woman who didn’t want to see anyone else at a party wearing the same design.
Meredith looked around the shop, felt a sense of pride at the progress she’d made. During the past week she’d been spending practically every waking moment in the place. True, while it helped keep her mind off of Alex, it had also given her a sense of purpose. A sense of accomplishment.
“Are things any better between you and Alex?”
Meredith slid her glance back to Kelly. “If by ‘better’ you mean has he changed his mind about him and me being together, the answer’s no. But then, I decided to let him stew awhile, wondering whether or not I’m going to take off again.”
“Are you?” Kelly asked as she slipped the dresses on padded hangers and hung them in the armoire.
“No. I’m through running. I’m staying this time.”
“I think that’s a good decision,” Kelly told her as she unwrapped another dress. “Oh my, this is lovely.”
Meredith glanced over to see what had elicited such a response and smiled. “It is pretty, isn’t it?” she replied at the sight of Kelly holding the strapless pale-gold tulle and beaded dress. “I chose it because it reminded me of the Elie Saab that I saw an actress wear to the Oscars last year. Why don’t you try it on?”
“It’s not my style. I generally stick with something more simple.”
“You mean something safe. There’s nothing wrong with the classics, but why not try something a little more daring? Shoot, you’ve certainly got the body for it, and this will look great with your coloring. And it also happens to be your size.”
Kelly frowned. “How do you know what my size is?”
Meredith laughed. “Because it’s my business to know. Now, go in the dressing room and try it on. I’ll bring you some shoes and accessories.”
Blowing off Kelly’s protests, Meredith insisted the other woman try on the delicate metallic heels she’d chosen to go with the dress. “You sure you don’t need any help with the zipper?”
“No. I’ve got it.”
“The stole goes draped across the front of the bodice.”
“The stole?”
Meredith rolled her eyes. “That long, sheer thingy with the sparkles on it.” After a few seconds more, she said, “Hurry up. Let me see how it fits.”
When Kelly emerged from the dressing room, Meredith was taken aback. “Oh, Kelly.” No wonder her brother was smitten with the woman. She looked like a Grecian goddess, tall, golden, regal. And, oh blast it, if she didn’t envy her those legs.
“It’s a little skimpy on material, don’t you think?”
“I think it’s perfect. You look beautiful.” And Jack wasn’t going to know what hit him when he got a load of her in this dress. “Turn around.”
She wobbled as she did so. “How on earth am I supposed to walk in these shoes?”
“Carefully. Don’t move. I’ve got the perfect earrings to wear with it.” She raced over to the display case and snagged the Fred Leighton knockoff diamond chandeliers from the velvet bed and brought them to Kelly. “Here, put these on.”
Kelly did as instructed.
God, but I’m good,” Meredith said, loving the effect. “Now, come sit down over here by the dressing table and let me pin up your hair.”
“Really, Meredith, I should take this off before I mess it up—”
“Go,” Meredith insisted, and pointed to the dressing table. Within moments, she’d gotten rid of the braid and was fashioning Kelly’s thick hair into a French twist. “Please tell me this color came from a bottle,” she said as she brushed the pale blond hair. “God wouldn’t be so unfair as to give you those legs and hair like this, too.”
Kelly chuckled. “Look at it this way, you got a double helping in the boobs department.”
“I did luck out there, didn’t I?” Meredith replied, seeing no reason for false modesty. “There, what do you think?”
Kelly stared at her face in the mirror. “I look…different.”
“You look gorgeous,” Meredith amended. “For the party, we’ll put on some pink lipstick, a little blush, and do up your eyes with some gold-and-bronze shadow, a little mascara, and Jack won’t know what hit him.”
Kelly’s eyes darted to her own in the mirror. “But I’m not coming to your party. And even if I was, I certainly wouldn’t wear this dress.”
“And why aren’t you coming to my party? And what do you mean you wouldn’t wear this dress? What’s wrong with it?”
“First off, I don’t like parties. And second, I couldn’t wear something like this. It’s…it’s not my style.”
“No offense, Kelly, but maybe it’s time you had a style update.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my style. Besides, I know what these little designer numbers cost and it’s not in my budget.”
“Fine. Then consider it a gift for letting me cry on your shoulder the other night.”
“As I recall, it wasn’t much of a shoulder,” she said dryly. “And while I appreciate the offer, I can’t accept this.”
“But you need something to wear to the party. And don’t say you aren’t coming. Jack’s coming and he’ll want you to come with him. So do I.”
Kelly hesitated. “All right. But I’ll wear the dress I wore to your mother’s party. It’s new. I just bought it last week.”
Meredith wrinkled her nose. “It’s nice, but you need something with a bit more…flash. You don’t want to look
like you’re attending a funeral, do you?” Not waiting for an answer, she grabbed Kelly by the hand. “Come here,” she said, and dragged her over to the trio of mirrors. “Look at yourself. See how it skims your body without hugging it? It was designed for somebody who’s long and lean like you are. It even gives a hint of cleavage here in the front, see? And I have some bras, those new miracle ones that are filled with gel, that will make you look like you’re a size C cup. Stay here and I’ll get one for you—”
“That’s okay,” Kelly said. “I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve got.”
“Well, even without the bra, you can see the dress is perfect for you.”
“It is pretty. But I don’t know,” she said, but Meredith could see she was weakening. “How much is it?”
“$5,500 for the dress. The shoes and earrings are another three grand.”
“Forget it. I can pick up something just as nice on one of my shoots and get it for half that. If I make their clothes look good, those designers are only to happy to cut the prices.”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll make you a deal that not even those hotshot designers can top.”
“What kind of deal?”
“A trade. You do the photo layout for my Christmas brochure and the outfit is yours.”
“Do you have any idea what it would take to put a brochure out in time for this Christmas? You need lead time on that kind of project if you want it to be good.”
Meredith mulled over that. “Well, what about doing one for Valentine’s Day? That’s a few months away. So you’d have time to do a bang-up job and get it out, say, for the first of February.”
Kelly narrowed her eyes and met Meredith’s gaze in the mirror. “The shoes and earrings are part of the deal, too?”
“The shoes and earrings, too.”
“All right. You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Meredith hugged the other woman and beamed. She saw no point in telling Kelly that her dealer’s cost was only a fraction of the retail price for the outfit and that she would have gladly paid her twice that figure to get her to do the layout. She almost felt like she was taking advantage of her.